You’re The Reason For the Grease Drops On My Guitar

Since starting this blog over four years ago, I’ve dealt with any number of important topics — space, religion, improv, relationships, etc.

And, of course, from near the beginning, dumb Taylor Swift lyrics.

I mean, Taylor’s talented for what she does and all, but there are sometimes that I just don’t think what she’s saying is what she’s trying to say. And while I’m not like the world’s biggest Taylor Swift fan or anything, it’s kind of hard to avoid hearing her songs, and there are lines that just can’t help eliciting a “huh?”

For example, not long after I started the blog, there was the post about how the guy was Romeo and she was a scarlet letter. Huh? I mean, yay literature and all, but what is that supposed to mean?

And then there was the one where she was talking to a guy on the phone at night, and so he was talking real slow ’cause it’s late and his momma can’t know. Huh? “Slow”? He’s on the telephone, and his mom’s there, but if he talks really slowly she won’t be able to figure out what’s going on? “That sounds like my son talking, but people don’t talk that slow”? Is that really what you’re aiming for?

So I’m in the car the other day, and I’m flipping stations, and here’s Taylor singing about how she knew some guy was trouble when he walked in. Which is fine and all. But then she keeps singing, and she’s talking about how “a new notch in your belt is all I’ll ever be.” Now, I’m familiar with the concept of someone being another notch in a bedpost, but in a belt? Don’t you put another notch in a belt to either let it out or take it in?

So, um, this is a song about how … Taylor Swift caused a guy … to lose weight? Or gain weight, maybe? Huh? Again, is that really the intent here?

“I knew you had burgers when you walked in…”

Cowboy Mouth — “This Train” Lyrics

“This Train” is song from Cowboy Mouth’s new CD by the same name.

This Train
Cowboy Mouth

This train hugs the track
It’s made it all the way to hell and back
Yeah, this train…

This train’s gone so far
You’re never really quite sure where you are
On this train…

This train forged in hope and fashioned by desire
With an engine running true should anyone inquire
When all else falls away, the one thing that remains
Is this train

(Take it, ladies) This train!

This train keeps rolling on
through so many riders come and gone
This train!
Just when you think it might be done
A brand-new adventure’s just begun
On this train!

If you need a break from all the pressure that you’re under
On a ride fueled with fame and powered by a hunger
I can’t take the kind of life where every day’s the same
This train

Sometimes late at night
I wonder if I made the right
Decision
Then I always tell myself
No way I’d follow someone else’s
Vision
Towards a collision
With this train

When I was a young boy way down south
I used to hop the train by my momma’s house

It was there and then I began to know
That there wasn’t anywhere I could not go
On this train

So when you feel your mind is always mired in confusion
When those in charge would keep us chasing their illusions
When all else falls away the one thing that remains
Is this train

This train

John Milstead — “Boy From Mississippi” Lyrics

Heard you got the city lights in your eyes
I guess now I’m someone you used to know.

It really swept you off your feet
With its smooth talk and high-rise dreams
How you’d get so far away from home

How’d I go from all you want
To just something in your way?
You can’t make us strangers
Just ’cause you walked away

So, baby, won’t you tell me when the sun sets in LA,
Do you hope maybe that I’ll wait and find some way to be OK?

Down this little one-way dirt road light on,
Hanging on no matter how long it takes
When you think of me, will I just be
That boy from Mississippi

Well, the talk moves pretty fast in this sleepy town
No one here knows the truth at all
Day in and out it’s just the same old thing
Nothing’s changed
I still rush home but you don’t call

How’d I go from all you want
to just something in your way
You can’t make us strangers
Just ’cause you walked away

So, baby, won’t you tell me when the sun sets in LA,
Do you hope maybe that I’ll wait, I’ll find some way to be OK?

Down this little one-way dirt road light on,
Hanging on no matter how long it takes
When you think of me, will I just be
That boy from Mississippi?

So, baby, won’t you tell me when the sun sets in LA,
Do you hope maybe that I’ll wait and find some way to be OK?

Down this little one dirt road light on,
Hanging on no matter how long it takes
When you think of me, will I just be
That boy from Mississippi

When you think of me, will I just be
That boy from Mississippi

“This Will Be My Resolution”

New Year’s Day

Carolyn Arends

I buy a lot of diaries
Fill them full of good intentions
Each and every New Year’s Eve
I make myself a list
All the things I’m gonna change
Until January 2nd
So this time I’m making one promise

CHORUS:
This will be my resolution
Every day is New Year’s Day
This will be my resolution
Every day is New Year’s Day

I believe it’s possible
I believe in new beginnings
‘Cause I believe in Christmas Day
And Easter morning too
And I’m convinced it’s doable
‘Cause I believe in second chances
Just the way that I believe in you

This will be my resolution
Every day is New Year’s Day
This could start a revolution
Every day is…

One more chance to start all over
One more chance to change and grow
One more chance to grab a hold of grace
And never let it go

Lyrics via Lyricstime

Matthew Perryman Jones — “Looking For You Again” Lyrics

Looking For You Again
Matthew Perryman Jones

Your breakdown was easy to see
And it took you away, further from me
Sifting through mishaps and photographs
I think of you, much more than I should
More than I should

And I’m falling down
Like it’s holy ground
I’m looking for you again
I’m looking for you again

Slow regrets
That live in the dark
And I wrote them all down
But I know them by heart

I’ve counted the cost of this loneliness
And I’ve paid for the crime
And one day I’ll die
With you in my mind

And I’m falling down
Like it’s holy ground
I’m looking for you again
I’m looking for you again

I’m not letting you go again
I’m not letting this story end
I’m not letting you go again, love, no

I’m falling down
Like it’s holy ground
I’m looking for you again
I’m looking for you again

“Looking For You Again” is available as a free download on Jones’ website.

Drew Holcomb & the Neighbors — “Hourglass” Lyrics

Hourglass
Drew Holcomb & the Neighbors

Oh, the miles we’ve wasted
In someone else’s shoes
Empty expectations, everything to lose

Everything that’s come to pass
Is sand inside the hourglass
Everything that’s come to pass
Is sand inside the hourglass

If yesterday is broken
Tomorrow’s far away
Where does that leave us today?

Everything that’s come to pass
Is sand inside the hourglass
Everything that’s come to pass
Is sand inside the hourglass

Everything that’s come to pass
Is sand inside the hourglass

Everything that’s come to pass
Is sand inside the hourglass

“Hourglass” is a song from Drew Holcomb & the Neighbors’ album “Chasing Someday.”

Watermelon Slim & The Workers — “Newspaper Reporter” Lyrics

Newspaper Reporter
Watermelon Slim & The Workers

Now boys I once had a job
As a newspaper reporter

They wouldn’t let me drink beer on the job
They told me I had to drink water

But I’m a blues man
And I don’t tolerate no fakes

Like the man at the newspaper says
That old boy has still got what it takes

Now I knew right for the start
I might not make it up to live

But I’d keep on playing my part
I’ll give you all I got to give

But I’m a blues man
And I don’t tolerate no fakes

Like the man behind the editor’s desk says
That old boy has still got what it takes

I don’t need no glitter on my face
Nor no six-inch platform shoes
‘Cause what we’re gonna lay down for you tonight
Is those sweet old Oklahoma blues

‘Cause I’m a blues man
And I don’t like playing my blues all alone

If you don’t like the blues the way we play them
Why don’t you get your coat and drive on home

Now I don’t do that job no more
I ain’t nobody’s writin’ hired gun

But you’re gonna see the blues on the paper
When I get my writing done

‘Cause I’m a blues man
And I don’t tolerate no fakes

Like the man at the newspaper says
That old boy has still got what it takes

Take it home, boys

I’m a blues man
Yeah, I don’t tolerate no fakes

I’m a blues man
And I don’t tolerate no fakes

Like the man at the newspaper says
That old boy has still got what it takes

Lady Antebellum — “Wanted You More” Lyrics

Wanted You More
Lady Antebellum

I kept waiting on a reason

In a call that never came

No, I never saw it coming

Something in you must have changed

All the words unspoken

Promises broken

I cried for so long

Wasted too much time

Should have seen the signs

Now I know what went wrong

I guess I wanted you more

And looking back now I’m sure

I wanted you more

I guess I wanted you more

All the nights we spent just talking

Of the things we wanted out of life (out of life)

Making plans and dreams together

I wish I’d seen I was just too blind

My heart was open, exposed and hoping

For you to lay it on the line

But in the end it seemed there was no room for me

Still I tried to change your mind

I guess I wanted you more

And looking back now I’m sure

I wanted you more

I guess I wanted you more

Oh, I don’t need you

I don’t need you anymore

I guess I wanted you more

And looking back now I’m sure

I wanted you more

I guess I wanted you more

I don’t need you

I don’t need you anymore

“Wanted You More” is from Lady Antebellum’s 2011 album, “Own The Night”

The Lady And The Panda

Once upon a time there was a little girl who lived with her cruel stepmother and her wicked stepsisters, who made her live like a servant in her own home.

The End.

Not much of a story, is it?

Take away the fairy godmother and the prince and the glass slippers, and Cinderella’s just not that compelling if it never makes it past the beginning.

One of the lost blog posts from earlier this year was a comparison of the philosophies of Lady Gaga and Kung Fu Panda. Which one more closely reflects who you are and who you want to be?

Earlier this year, I went to a Sugarland concert, and one of the opening acts, Little Big Town, did a cover of Lady Gaga’s Born This Way. Other than finding it more agreeable than the original, which, to be fair, I had limited experience with, I didn’t give it a whole lot of thought until a few days later, when I was watching Kung Fu Panda 2, which is awesome.

And the thought occurred to me that a phenomenal amount of how you take life is rooted in whether you believe Lady Gaga or Po.

I’m all for the idea that all men are created equal, so, to that extent, I’ll agree with Lady Gaga. Where she loses me, though, is the idea that “I’m on the right track, baby, I was born this way.”

And, you know, she seems to be doing well enough for herself. If she was raised believing she was a superstar and stayed on that track, then it seems to have paid off for her, and good for her.

But we’re not all raised superstars. We’re not all born that way. And, sometimes in life, we find ourselves at points of wishing we could be someone else.

And we reach those points, if all we have is the way we were born, if all we have is who we are and who we’ve been, we don’t have much.

As the soothsayer in Kung Fu Panda 2 tells Po, “Your story may not have such a happy beginning but that doesn’t make you who you are — it is the rest of your story, who you choose to be.”

Our stories are important. But every day that goes by becomes only the prologue of the story yet to be told.

Po reaches inner peace when he finally realizes. By the end, he tells his foe, “You’ve got to let go of that stuff from the past, because it just doesn’t matter . The only thing that matters is what you choose to be now.”

It’s a story that’s told constantly through the Bible. “But I’m just a ….” No, you’re not.

Someone I knew used to have on her blog a tagline about aspiring to be who you were born to be.

I have no desire to be who I was born to be. I don’t want to stop at the beginning. I want to be better.

When you reach the point where you wish you could be someone else, do it. Be someone better. Be yourself, better than you’ve ever been.

“Nothing’s unstoppable except for me when I’m stopping you from telling me something’s unstoppable!” — Po

The Shallow End

So, back in January, I went up to Nashville to see my favorite musician, Lori McKenna, perform at the Bluebird Café’s singer-songwriter showcase, along with some other artists, and wrote a blog post about how great it was.

My good friend Joe Gurner read my post and sent me an e-mail, challenging me to stop talking about songwriting and lyrics and actually try to write some.

Joe, you see, is one of those people with actual musical talent. He can write lyrics and melodies, arrange and perform the instruments, and produce the tracks, all from the comfort of his own home. He’s been in bands, and lately records a bunch of his own stuff and posts it on MacJams.

I, on the other hand, am one of the complete opposite type of person, those with no musical talent whatsoever. I’ve put my singing voice to use to good effect at improv shows — if I try to sing, people will laugh. The idea of trying to read or write music confuses me, and my efforts to learn to play an instrument have been horrible failures. I love music, I love lyrics, I love the idea of songwriting, but musicality utterly evades me.

Joe assured me this doesn’t matter. “Just write some lyrics,” he said.

So I did. I have no idea why, but I decided, with nothing else to go on, that I was going to write a song called “The Shallow End,” and, from that title, wrote some lyrics. I’ve transcribed a lot of lyrics over the last few years, so I tried to write something that looked a little like that, if less good.

(I comforted myself by telling myself that the quality didn’t matter this time, that this was just a proof-of-concept to see if I could write something that could be a song. If you listen to it, tell yourself that, too. I would appreciate it.)

So I sent the lyrics to Joe. “Is this a song,” I asked. “It could be,” Joe said.

Joe took my words, and cut them up, and moved them around, and added music, and sang them, and recorded the finished product.

He moved a lot of the lines around from when I wrote it, and so when I heard it, it sounded a little strange.

But …

He also turned something I wrote into, you know, an actual song. And that’s even more strange.

The Shallow End — Joe Gurner & David Hitt